I really like John Locke's theory of how government should work. It reflects the will of people as well as protects them from themselves. It keeps society running in a civil, impartial way. And when it's compared to ideologies like Hobbes', it fills me with a patriotic pride that just reeks of eagles and freedom.At the time it was written, it was probably a perfectly viable form of government, however it seems like it would be limited in a modern society due to its scope.
It's rather similar to Communism in this respect. It seems as though it would work really fantastically on a small scale, but as you add more and more people to the equation it becomes more and more unstable. On a small scale you could get every person together and have all of them come to an agreement on how they are to be governed. Every one could explicitly consent to a social contract. But after so many people, having everyone manually agree to a social contract becomes unfeasible. Granted, this might be alleviated by dividing the large group into smaller groups, but then the actual will of the people is diluted by continued re-interpretation.
So while the idea is a very good one that holds very real merits, it also contains very real flaws that make it almost as unrealistic as Hobbes' absolutist monarchy.
I really like what you have to say about Locke, I think he is my favorite so far! I think his theories are great too, and I try to imagine if it would work on a large scale. Even if we had communities, or say neighborhoods that began to function this way, and then eventually more and more neighborhoods would do the same; eventually we would have large areas where people work for the good of the community. I really think that when we don't see the possibility of something, then we wont work for it. For example, if everyone in a neighborhood believed that that neighborhood would never improve then they wouldn't really work to make it a better place, in fact they might inadvertently work against the betterment of that place. All in all, cool post! :)
ReplyDelete